Chapter 353: So What Exactly Happened in the Pure Land?
As one of the few resurrection ninjutsu in the Ninja World, One's Own Life Reincarnation did have some difficulty to it. But compared to the tremendous results it could achieve, Kenichi felt that level of difficulty was almost negligible.
"Teacher, why do you think the Hidden Sand Village never used a resurrection technique like One's Own Life Reincarnation on a larger scale?" Kenichi asked curiously as he looked at the special jonin practicing nearby.
"First, this technique is not easy to learn. Most ordinary ninja would struggle with it. And even if they did learn it, do you really think they would stay in the village if the village could force them to sacrifice their lives to save someone else?" Orochimaru glanced at his disciple. "The biggest problem with resurrection ninjutsu is always the sacrifice."
Sacrifice. It was such a beautiful word on the surface.
In reality, though, very few people could truly accept it. Fear of death existed in every living thing.
"What is more," Orochimaru continued, "if your village starts sacrificing people to revive the strong, how much cohesion do you think that village will still have?"
If a village was willing to sacrifice one ninja to revive someone important, then everyone else in that village would start wondering the same thing.
If it was that ninja today, then who would it be tomorrow?
Would it be them? Their family? Their friends?
Kenichi shrugged. "They would definitely think about it. But I still think that if a village really wanted to do it, they could always find a way."
To Kenichi, resurrection was never something harmless.
Everyone had someone they wanted to bring back. Even if it required one life for another, people would still take the risk. There would even be situations where someone would pay for another person's death just to secure that chance.
The moment resurrection became practical, it would become a true Pandora's box.
That was probably why resurrection ninjutsu had not been explored too deeply in the original story. If it had been, the tone would have shifted too easily from hot blooded shonen into something much darker and uglier.
"It is probably because the people of the Hidden Sand Village had their own reasons," Orochimaru said. He did not dwell on it any further. In the end, resurrection was never a simple matter, and whether the caster was willing remained the biggest obstacle of all.
No matter how one looked at it, the issue was complicated.
Kenichi scratched his head. The people of the Ninja World really did not seem especially enthusiastic about resurrection. Was that some kind of universal moral value here?
"Amamiya sama, I'm ready."
At that moment, the special jonin stood up respectfully and addressed Kenichi. Kenichi nodded, then studied the man carefully.
"I need you to use this technique to revive someone. Do you have any objections?"
He looked directly into the other man's eyes, wanting to see how much resistance remained under the influence of the parasites.
If there was no resistance at all, then the parasites would become harder to spread in secret, because anyone with a brain would find that suspicious.
But if the resistance was too strong, then his plan would fail. In that case, how would he revive Amado? And the value of the parasites would drop sharply.
"...I... have no objections."
A trace of struggle and hesitation flashed through the man's eyes, but it was quickly swallowed by the same devout look as before. He answered without further hesitation.
Kenichi nodded.
It seemed the parasites' influence was indeed very obvious. No wonder they had been wiped out by the Sage of Six Paths back then. Of course, the Sage probably had no idea that Kenichi had revived them and even taken control of their queen.
Were the Zerg terrifying? Of course they were.
But if something terrifying was in his hands, then it stopped being a threat and started becoming a weapon. The more Kenichi thought about it, the more satisfied he felt.
"You..." Orochimaru looked on with a complicated expression.
He also had subordinates willing to die for him, but he honestly did not remember his disciple ever showing talent in this area before. So how exactly had Kenichi managed this?
"What is it, Teacher?" Kenichi asked, puzzled. He had no idea what Orochimaru was thinking. Even so, he had no intention of revealing the parasites yet. Their existence defied too much common sense.
More importantly, he still needed to conduct more large scale experiments to confirm how parasitism affected the human body over long periods. Some illnesses did not kill immediately. They accumulated damage over time. He needed to know whether long term parasitism caused irreversible harm.
If it did, then the use of parasites would need to be approached much more carefully.
"It's nothing. Hurry up and revive Amado," Orochimaru said, narrowing his eyes as if some thought had crossed his mind.
Kenichi did not ask further. Compared to the parasite issue, the Sage of Six Paths was a much greater threat. Even now, Kenichi still was not completely certain that the one who had taken over Amado earlier had truly been the Sage, but the mere possibility made him wish Amado would just stay in the Pure Land forever.
If Amado had not been such a talented scientist, Kenichi would never have considered reviving him again.
It could only be said that bringing Amado back carried risk, but the benefits were equally enormous.
"Begin. I will take care of your wife and daughter."
Kenichi moved the incomplete Edo Tensei vessel containing Amado onto the table. Amado was only one step away from being fully summoned. His face could already be seen, but there was no breath in him at all.
"Yes, sir."
The special jonin's eyes showed even more obvious struggle now. Even Orochimaru could see his reluctance. But despite that resistance, he still flawlessly performed One's Own Life Reincarnation.
Soon, his life force began to drain away rapidly.
At the same time, the Edo Tensei layer on Amado's face began peeling away, gradually revealing his original skin and features. But strangely, the face remained Amado's own.
"How interesting," Orochimaru murmured from the side. "So someone revived through Edo Tensei can also be restored by this method?"
"Mr. Amado's daughter was brought back the same way," Kenichi said with a nod.
Even though this was the second time he had seen it, he still could not help but sigh inwardly. The ninjas of this world really were...
Amazing.
A resurrection ninjutsu this convenient and this powerful, and yet it had been locked away all this time? Their moral restraint was so absurdly high that Kenichi could not even find the words to criticize it. If it were him, he would have caused chaos across the entire world with it and made himself rich in no time.
"That really is interesting." Orochimaru smiled faintly, clearly already imagining some other possible applications.
At that moment, Kenichi felt something tugging weakly at his pant leg.
He looked down. It was the special jonin.
The man was barely breathing now. His body still looked mostly the same, but his complexion had gone so bad that anyone could tell he was already at death's door.
"Don't... let my daughter become a ninja..." he said with the last of his strength.
Then his head dropped, and his hand loosened.
Kenichi gathered Yang Release chakra and checked the man's brain. The larva inside him had died as well.
"So the parasite dies too..." Kenichi thought to himself.
Even so, he intended to fulfill the man's wish. Becoming a ninja truly was not necessarily a good thing.
But could anyone live happily in this world without becoming a ninja?
"All beings suffer," Kenichi muttered, shaking his head.
Then he turned to Amado, who was slowly opening his eyes.
He silently activated Sage Mode and stared at Amado with full focus. If anything about him seemed even slightly wrong, Kenichi was prepared to send him straight back to the Pure Land.
Still, he could not say with certainty whether that would even work. After all, if the Sage of Six Paths was involved...
"I've been revived?" Amado looked at his hands in a daze, then looked up at Kenichi and Orochimaru.
"Mr. Amado, regarding the plant gene programming ninjutsu improvement you suggested earlier, do you have any further ideas?" Kenichi asked quickly.
Amado blinked in confusion. "Huh?"
Kenichi's expression darkened slightly.
Amado did not remember that part.
"Mr. Amado, do you remember anything from the time you were revived before?" Kenichi asked again. At this point, he was basically certain the person in front of him was the real Amado, not the Sage of Six Paths.
If it had truly been the Sage, there would have been no need for him to play dumb. A being of that level would not lower himself to that.
"I... only remember telling you some things about the Pure Land," Amado said slowly, his eyes unfocused. "Then... what was it? You said you wanted to research it, and after that, you sent me back."
He remembered part of it.
But he had forgotten a crucial section.
Kenichi and Orochimaru exchanged a glance.
Now they were certain. The one speaking through Amado before had indeed not been Amado. It had been someone else, and the most likely candidate was the Sage of Six Paths.
Kenichi pinched the bridge of his nose. He still had no idea what the Sage wanted, but one thing was clear. The things Amado had said earlier, the things most directly related to that existence, had somehow been erased from his own memory.
So did the Sage of Six Paths not want anyone to know the truth about the Pure Land?
What exactly was hidden there?
Kenichi's heart filled with doubt.
Still, he had survived this long under Orochimaru, rising from experimental subject to disciple, and one of the principles he had learned was very simple:
If someone desperately wanted to hide a secret, then unless you were overwhelmingly stronger than them, it was best not to touch it.
Otherwise, trouble would come quickly.
"Did something happen?" Amado asked cautiously, sensing the strange atmosphere.
"Something unpleasant," Kenichi replied, though he did not elaborate.
At the same time, seeing the interest in Orochimaru's eyes gave him an immediate headache. He really hoped his teacher would not start repeatedly testing the Sage's bottom line.
That was the Sage of Six Paths, a terrifying figure even when alive, and now apparently still plotting something after death. Kenichi even suspected that the Sage was preparing something enormous, and once he was exposed, the consequences would be severe.
When his own strength rose far enough, he would no longer need to fear the Sage this much. For now, though, Kenichi felt that research into the Pure Land should wait until he had Six Paths power and the Rinnegan in hand.
"Amado, I have something I want to discuss with you," Orochimaru said with a smile.
Kenichi's mouth twitched, but Orochimaru gave him a reassuring glance. He could only sigh.
He just hoped his teacher would be careful and not repeatedly provoke the Sage of Six Paths.
"Mr. Amado, I'll go work on my own research first," Kenichi said, then turned and left. He planned to focus on the wheat seed experiment for now. At the very least, it would help calm him down.
With the improved ninjutsu that had come from the Sage's own suggestion, Kenichi's crop research had also progressed more smoothly. The gene programming for the wheat seeds was now complete.
The only remaining issue was whether Wood Release could be used to accelerate crop growth.
"There has to be some problem with Wood Release: Deep Forest Emergence. Or maybe it's because once Senju Hashirama died, Konoha lost that ability entirely. That would also explain why Hiruzen and the others were so obsessed with bringing Wood Release back," Kenichi muttered.
Still, he thought the second explanation was unlikely. After all, Hashirama was dead, but Obito still existed. And when Kenichi had previously summoned Hashirama with Edo Tensei, he had already asked him directly about it.
Hashirama's answer had been clear.
Wood Release could not be used to grow crops.
"Then why not?" Kenichi asked himself.
He gathered chakra in his hand, looked at the artificial hill in front of him, and used a Wood Release technique.
Countless wooden spikes burst from the ground with sharp whistling sounds.
Immediately after, a tree rose into existence before him.
"On the outside, it looks like a tree, but its hardness..." Kenichi touched the large trunk.
It felt like real wood from a forest, but if he hacked at it with an ordinary blade, the bark alone would be hard to cut through.
That was ridiculous.
"It still contains my chakra..." Kenichi murmured as realization dawned on him. "I see. This isn't really a plant at all. It's a construct made from chakra."
He had finally understood.
.....
[If you don't want to wait for the next update, read 50 chapters ahead on P@treon.]
[[email protected]/FanficLord03]